Caffeine?

[itinkthereforeima]

Not pregnant yet but TTC month 2. I figured it would help to mostly ditch caffeine before being actually pregnant so that it wouldn't be a sudden shock to my system to come off it. But even 2 months later it's giving me trouble! I didn't realise how dependent I'd become!
Throughout my childhood, I had 2 mugs of tea with breakfast, one after lunch, and three after dinner! 6 adult sized mugs of strong black tea every day. In my teens, even more, as I was old enough to operate the kettle and help myself during the day.
After whittling it down to decaf tea with an occasional regular tea or coffee once or twice a week, I feel exhausted. Even two months later. This morning I got fed up of being in slow motion and struggling to wake up, so I gave in and made a pot of tea. Suddenly I am properly awake and can get things done!
So... I'm wondering what everyone else does regarding caffeine in pregnancy? Would one big mug of tea in the morning be safe? Or is it just too risky and I need to just accept the exhaustion? I'm falling behind on everything without it, won't it just be even worse when pregnancy fatigue sets in?

Some caffeine is fine. I can’t remember how much exactly but should be easy enough to find on NHS advice.

However sounds like you were super addicted so might be worth persevering with cutting it out completely.

NHS guidelines are 200mg caffeine a day which is roughly two small cups of coffee. I have had a cup (2 some days) of coffee every day during pregnancy (am now 38 weeks)

If you have time, read Expecting Better by Emily Oster so you can see the science (and sometimes lack of) behind some guidelines (e.g. caffeine, alcohol, ante-natal tests, some foods) It's a pretty quick read. I found the section on caffeine useful and I made a personal decision that on really rough days (and there are definitely a few) a second cup of coffee was fine.

However, as PP has said, best to lower your intake now. I went from 8 cups of coffee a day to 2 several years ago and the headaches were hideous! I wouldn't want that and all the crappy symptoms that come in the first trimester too.

I was a big tea drinker before I got pregnant and so far (35+5) have more or less managed to cope with a cup of caffeinated tea in the morning with decaf - or fruit / peppermint - the rest of the day. As a pp has said, coffee has more caffeine in than tea but I figured because caffeine is present in other stuff such as chocolate then cutting back to just the one cup of caffeinated Yorkshire Tea a day will do me and baby good in the long run

The others have given good advice but also, and this may sound daft, make sure you are getting to bed early enough, and consistently. Being stimulated by caffeine for so long may have made you develop a lifestyle that depends on that stimulation, iyswim, so the time you start thinking that you should be going to bed is one that can, in reality, only be sustained if you have a healthy dose of caffeine in your system to keep you going. Bring your bedtime forward by an hour or two each night for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference - it can't hurt!

I went off coffee right away, the smell made me heave so on lots of occasions people don’t have to worry about caffeine withdrawal your body rejects it anyway.

I found out at 11 weeks (long story) but went off coffee ages before that.

I do still drink coke tho

I was a big tea drinker before I became pregnant - now I have 2/3 cups of caffeinated tea with the rest being decaf. I have cravings for coke now, so i'll a little of that here and there. I don't think I'm having too much caffeine and I need to have some to keep me sane. I've had ppl tell me not to drink coke but I've got to have some perks while I'm pregnant! lol

I drank a LOT of coffee and tea before finding out I was pregnant unplanned, I have cut back a lot since finding out and gone off coffee but still have 2 cups of tea a day. I guess every body is different though and your body will tell you with aversions in time. Maybe cut it back to 2 / 3 cups a day?

I am usually a proper caffeine addict. I love my coffee. However since before getting my bfp I really haven't wanted it anyway. It's quite common to go off it in early pregnancy so I wouldn't worry too much.

I cut down from ~10 cups of caffeinated tea a day when I got pregnant. It did help that caffeine made me feel very sick for the first 12 weeks!

I now have 2 cups of “real” tea (one first thing and one after lunch) and the rest are decaf. I put a bit of extra sugar in the decaf!

Is it possible you tried to cut down too much too soon? Maybe have a few extra cups of tea a day for now but still less than you were having before making the change.

I was having around 8-10 cups a day before my first pregnancy. I found it a lot easier to cut down and then go cold turkey during pregnancy. Between 1 and 2 I started on the coffee again but I never got anywhere near as addicted - maybe 2-4 a day max unless I was doing very late nights for work. I do miss coffee now I’m pregnant again but there are some reasonable decaf options that seem to work as a placebo for me. Using pregnancy to cut down was one of the best things I did. I used to get terrible caffein withdrawal headaches before my first (normally on weekends when I didn’t drink as much as I would at work as I didn’t have a coffee machine at home then).

You have to be careful with shop bought coffee as some of them are over the caffeine guidance for a single cup. I could have had instant and been within the guidelines but I don’t really like it that much so quitting seemed more achievable.

Thanks for your replies everyone! So for the last couple of days I've decided to have one cup of tea on the mornings to get me going, and decaf the rest of the day, and only decaf coffee if any. It's working really well! I feel a huge difference having just that single cup in the morning. If it's safe to have one per day, I guess I'll stick to that?

I love my tea but switched to decaf when we started ttc for the same reasons. I'm 6 weeks pregnant now and can't stand the thought of tea!

And yes I think nhs guidance is 2 per day so one caffeinated tea in the morning would be fine.